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The Arsenal title-winning jigsaw is still incomplete

It was with great joy to read Arsenal had finally bought a quality striker in the form of Lacazette- an acquisition sorely missed since Van Persie left for Man Utd. There is anticipation and hope from Gunners worldwide that this will finally be our season, that with reinforcements in the defence in the form of Kolasinic and Mustafi from last season we can now be title contenders.

Yet I feel we still have not solved the most crucial of positions that being the Central Defensive Midgielder. Hazard laid bare the frailty in our midfield last season when he shrugged off Coquelin like a clingy one night stand. Xhaka, although a better passer of the ball and with a great shot from distance, is not strong enough nor smart enough to anchor our midfield like Kante does at Chelsea. There are better players on the market, we could have had Wanyama for 17million, or Kante, who had proven their worth in the league. Why aren’t Arsenal looking for a destroyer like William Carvalho, Geoffrey Kondogbia or Grzegorz Krychowiak.

With the plethora of attacking talent at Arsenal we always seem to get undone at the back by conceding stupid goals which cost us in the title run in. Its time we got rid of the injury prone mediocre players such as Walcott, Welbeck and Wilshere as well, and replace them with players that have a steadfast winning mentality and who will not fade during the course of a season. A centre back like Virgil Van Dijk to marshall the defence. A monster in midfield to give the opposition attack nightmares, and a magician in attack to mesmerise the opposition defences into submission.

Come on there are cheaper and more available defensive midfielders out there within the pl lower teams that would do an excelent job for us but we all know how Wenger insists on only bringing in quality! How about a little injury contingency, elneny doesn’t reassure as cover for a period of months if xhaka gets injured!
Personally the rumour I liked was Jorginho from napoli great defensive player who can thread passes forward beautifully. But as it was a tabloid rumour I guess that will never happen!

Great shout! A player we’re annually linked with with a buttload of talent. Any idea how he went last year? My only gripe would be we need a player to make an impact.. Midfielders generally take a while to adjust.. Especially Serie A which is much, much slower

Xhaka and a defensive midfielder should not be playing together.For our style of play it will be irrelevant.Unless Wenger is buying the DM to compete with Xhaka then fine.We need a player who will compete with Ramsey.Last season all our CM’s were injured which really cost us.We need a central midfielder more than a defensive one.If Ramsey gets injured we’re doomed if we don’t have any back ups available.I thought after Lacazette a CM would’ve been our priority but signs are showing that it’ll likely be ignored and we will sign another attacker.

I disagree on that front. Our squad is massive and the main rumoured exits are home-grown which doesn’t do us any favours when it come to registration. (Gibbs, sczez, Walcott, Wilsh). There’s still a lot of time and targets to be chased. Our midfield isn’t dire in the fact that Xhaka and Ramsey have shown positive results. Starting the season with Xhaka, Coq, Ramsey and The Nens is just far too thin with Europa as well.

if someone could just tell or show arsenal officials my comment plzz do try
i want arsenal to buy gelson martins sporting fc
and bring back fabregas you need him if you want lacazette to score 30+
start like this

Time for some brutal honesty…this team, as it stands, is in no better position to compete next season than they were 12 months ago, minus the fact that some fans have been easily snowed by the acquisition of Lacazette, the free transfer LB and the release of Sanogo…if you look at the facts carefully you will see a team that still has far more questions than answers…to better show what I mean by this statement I will briefly discuss the current state of affairs on a position-by-position basis…in goal we have 4 potential candidates, but in reality we have only 1 option with any real future and somehow he’s the only one we have actively tried to get rid of for years because he and his father were a little too involved on social media and he got caught smoking(funny how people still defend Wiltshire under the same and far worse circumstances)…you would think we would want to keep any goaltender that Juventus had interest in, as they seem to have a pretty good history when it comes to that position…as far as the defenders on our current roster there are only a few individuals whom have the skill and/or youth worthy of our time and/or investment, as such we should get rid of anyone who doesn’t meet those simple requirements, which means we should get rid of DeBouchy, Gibbs, Gabriel, Mertz and loan out Chambers to see if last seasons foray with Middlesborough was an anomaly or a prediction of things to come…some fans have lamented wildly about the return of Mertz to the starting lineup due to his FA Cup performance but these sort of pie in the sky meanderings are indicative of what’s wrong with this club and it’s wishy-washy fan-base…in addition to these moves the club should aggressively pursue the acquisition of dominant and mobile CB to stabilize an all too fragile defensive group that has self-destructed on numerous occasions over the past 5 seasons…moving forward and building on our need to re-establish our once dominant presence throughout the middle of the park we need to target a CDM then do whatever it takes to get that player into the fold without any of the usual nickel and diming we have become famous for(this kind of ruthless haggling has cost us numerous special players and certainly can’t help make the player in question feel good about the way their future potential employer feels about them)…in order for us to become dominant again we need to be strong up the middle again from Goalkeeper to CB to DM to ACM to striker, like we did in our most glorious years before and during Wenger’s reign…with this in mind, if we want Ozil to be that dominant attacking midfielder we can’t keep leaving him exposed to constant ridicule about his lack of defensive prowess and provide him with the proper players in the final third…he was never a good defensive player in Real or with the German National squad and they certainly didn’t suffer as a result of his presence on the pitch…as for the rest of the midfield the blame falls squarely in the hands of Wenger and Gazidis, the fact that Ramsey, Ox, Sanchez and even Ozil were allowed to regularly start when none of the aforementioned had more than a year left under contract is criminal for a club of this size and financial might…the fact that we could find money for Walcott and Xhaka, who weren’t even guaranteed starters, means that our whole business model needs a complete overhaul…for me it’s time to get rid of some serious deadweight, even if it means selling them below what you believe their market value is just to simply right this ship and change the stagnant culture that currently exists…this means saying goodbye to Wiltshire, Elneny, Carzola, Walcott and Ramsey…everyone, minus Elneny, have spent just as much time on the training table as on the field of play, which would be manageable if they weren’t so inconsistent from a performance standpoint(excluding Carzola, who is like the recent version of Rosicky—too bad, both will be deeply missed)…in their places we need to bring in some proven performers with no history of injuries…up front, although I do like the possibilities that a player like Lacazette presents, the fact that we had to wait so many years to acquire some true quality at the striker position falls once again squarely at the feet of Wenger…this issue highlights the ultimate scam being perpetrated by this club since the arrival of Kroenke: pretend your a small market club when it comes to making purchases but milk your fans like a big market club when it comes to ticket prices and merchandising…I believe the reason why Wenger hasn’t pursued someone of Henry’s quality, minus a fairly inexpensive RVP, was that he knew that they would demand players of a similar ilk to be brought on board and that wasn’t possible when the business model was that of a “selling” club…does it really make sense that we could only make a cheeky bid for Suarez, or that we couldn’t get Higuain over the line when he was being offered up for half the price he eventually went to Juve for, or that we’ve only paid any interest to strikers who were clearly not going to press their current teams to let them go to Arsenal like Benzema or Cavani…just part of the facade that finally came crashing down when Sanchez finally called their bluff…the fact remains that no one wants to win more than Sanchez, including Wenger, and although I don’t agree with everything that he has done off the field, I would much rather have Alexis front and center than a manager who has clearly bought into the Kroenke model in large part due to the fact that his enormous ego suggests that only he could accomplish great things without breaking the bank…unfortunately that isn’t possible anymore as the game has changed quite dramatically in the last 15 years, which has left a largely complacent and complicit Wenger on the outside looking in…so don’t blame those players who demanded more and were left wanting…don’t blame those fans who have tried desperately to raise awareness for several years when cracks began to appear…place the blame at the feet of those who were well aware all along of the potential pitfalls of just such a plan but continued to follow it even when it was no longer a financial necessity, like it ever really was…

Really incomplete. Hopefully we have some clarity on the Lemar deal or Mahrez. I am eager to get some closure on that. Clearly one is a better option but they’re both upgrades that can slot in the 1st XI and increase the level of competition on the field. If that were to happen Walcott should be the candidate to leave, not Giroud who offer a unique skillset (height, power). Specially if there is a 30m offer on the table. Wenger doesn’t have a record of pushing players out even if they have no value to the squad (ex Sanogo, Debuchy).
Gibbs seems out, unfortunately Szczesny as well, Jenkinson and Debuchy too. That is also a good thing (wages off and recoup of funds).
Possibility of Wilshere leaving as well with a few suitors lining up as Arsenal would be wise to insert either a buy back clause or a right to match any bids made for him were they to sell. If that were to happen and with the Cazorla uncertainty buying a midfielder might be a smart investment. Arsenal never did this but a loan deal for Renato Sanchez would be smart so would trying to prize away Goretzka with all our german contingent. Your choice…
Same for Chambers who seems to be attracting interest even though I would keep him, he played well at the U21 Championship. If Chambers go than I would understand the rumours for Van Djik since they are doing business for Gibbs.
That would be for me a completion of the puzzle with Ox and Özil hopefully being renewed before the season starts maybe than Sanchez might follow with performance on the pitch.

There is one important thing you are missing when you want to throw “mediocre” players like Wilshere out. When it comes to the love for this club, he tops the list. In the way things are today, he is the closest you can get to loyalty. I don’t know about you but somehow that defines a player to me. I see that as an important asset. Also, your logic baffles me. To get all the english players out! If ey ain’t the best in the world, they are the best english men can offer. So live with it. It’s not Abu Dhabi premiere league, its EPL.

Fair enough . Sony are happy to finish 4th or lower . You are happy with players who start a season with great promise only to fade away during the crucial parts of the season . Which one of these players especially Wilshere has done anything of significance when the pressure is on Arsenal to perform at their optimum or win against the odd’s ??? . If anything these players have contributed to our problems by being injured for most of the season rendering them useless . Is it loyalty keeping these players at a club or the bare truth that nobody wants any injury prone has beena besides Arsenal .

I really hope transfer window isn’t closed for Arsenal, but I fear it actually is.
Regardless of the Sanchez situation, I’m not convinced we’ll even sell the deadwood players.
Of course, I don’t expect Lemar to arrive, but it would be nice if any of the rumored players is signed.